I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to electronic circuits, and more specifically to a transmitter for wireless communication.
II. Background
In a wireless communication system, a wireless device often digitally processes traffic data to generate data samples. A transmitter within the wireless device typically converts the data samples to analog signals, filters and amplifies the analog signals, and modulates a local oscillator (LO) signal with the amplified analog signals to generate a modulated signal. The transmitter further filters and amplifies the modulated signal to generate a radio frequency (RF) output signal that is suitable for transmission via a wireless channel. The signal conditioning and modulation by the transmitter often require various analog circuit blocks such as filters, amplifiers, mixers, and so on. These analog circuit blocks may be difficult to design and may also be susceptible to performance degradation due to component mismatches and tolerances. Furthermore, these analog circuit blocks may consume large amounts of battery power and may represent a fairly significant portion of the overall cost of the wireless device.
There is therefore a need in the art for a transmitter having improved performance, less power consumption, and/or lower cost.